The Naked Truth
by Emmylou
Summary: A Mexican standoff about a case leads to Alex and Gene playing a game involving truth and stripping. The last one clothed gets the case resolution they want, but to get it they’ve got to answer some very personal questions... Galex Fun.
1. Chapter 1

**Title**: The Naked Truth (1 of 4)

**Author**: Emmylou/EmmyAngua

**Disclaimer**: Ashes to Ashes, Life on Mars, and the characters therein belong to the BBC and Kudos.

**Rating**: PG-15 (swearing, nudity)

**Summary**: A Mexican standoff about a case leads to Alex and Gene playing a game involving truth and stripping. The last one clothed gets the case resolution they want, but to get it they've got to answer some very personal questions...

**Author's Notes**: OK...this started as a little fantasy in my head and while such things would normally disappear by morning, it was still there the next day, and the next night, so I thought 'bugger this for a game of soldiers, let's get this thing on paper'.

---

There were many reasons why Alex didn't think that the young man in front of her was a drug dealer – chief of which was the fact he looked like a teenage Boris Johnson. The resemblance was striking - a pudgy pink face, fluffy blond hair, and pale blue eyes.

They were in the interview room and Gene was stomping around trying to put the fear of god into the kid. It was working – the boy's head was bowed so low that all Alex could see as she sat opposite was his hair, and he was so intimidated that he barely opened his mouth when speaking. The mumble, she thought, didn't exactly detract from the Boris Johnson image.

She cut of Gene mid-shout. "Where's your dad, Bobby?"

Bobby Hadleigh, seventeen, looked up in puzzlement. "W't?"

"Your dad," she repeated gently.

"Dead," he muttered.

"When you were young?" she pressed.

"Y'h," he replied. He bowed his head again.

"Right," she said brightly. "That tells me everything I need to know."

Gene had recovered from the sudden interruption and was now looking furious. "Oh does it?" he snapped at her.

Alex pushed back her seat and moved to the door. "Yes it does. Outside, please."

Gene, looking very much as though he wasn't sure which one of them he'd prefer to slap upside the head, stormed after her and slammed the door behind him. She settled against the wall as she always did at moments like these, he towered over her.

"What the hell was that about?" he snarled.

Alex smiled sweetly up at him and crossed her arms. "I was saving us time. All you're doing is scaring him – that approach isn't going to get us anywhere with him."

She held up a hand before he could go into meltdown. "He's grown up without any male influence. He's not exactly Brad Pitt...uh...Jason Donovan and I doubt whether he was popular at school. Acting like the Uber-Bully-"

"Stop speaking German," he snapped.

She huffed impatiently. "Let me go in alone. He'll open up to a gentle female presence."

Gene's face twisted in a way that said all too clearly how well he rated her gentle female presence, but she slipped past him and was already at the door before he replied.

"Five minutes Bolls," he called, "then I'm coming in there and kicking the shit out of him!"

---

Alex couldn't help but feel a thrill at how well it worked. All she'd had to do was smile at him and speak softly and he looked at her like she was the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel.

"I thought she was French 'cause you don't get girls like that over here. She did this amazing thing where...."

"So you met her on holiday in France?" Alex interrupted before the conversation dipped into the sexual fantasies of a seventeen year old.

"Yeah," he said. "She was from London too. Said she wanted to meet up after the holiday...I thought she was having me on."

Poor kid, though Alex. Low self esteem, wanted to be cool, a pretty girl flatters him...

"And the drugs?"

Bobby swallowed. "Well I thought she was having me on...so she said she'd give me her bag to take back to London. Then we'd have to meet up for her to get it back...I couldn't believe anyone was so desperate to be around me..."

"You're doing great," Alex soothed. "A lot of great men have fallen for traps like that...don't be ashamed." Thank god Gene wasn't here, she thought, he would have fallen on his arse laughing at this story.

"Anyway...I promised I wouldn't look in the bag. But when we got home I was curious. I opened it up and it was just full of drugs." He swallowed. "I panicked. When she phoned me to arrange to meet up, I said I wouldn't go. Then this other man came on the phone – yelling at me – he said that he knew where I lived and that if I didn't turn up with the bag he'd stab my mum while she slept and then me..." His voice became higher with fear.

"And?" pressed Alex.

"So I went...and suddenly there's coppers everywhere and I get arrested. Everyone else got away."

Alex, a mixture of sympathy and exasperation for the boy, leaned forward. "It's very important that I find out that girl's name, Bobby."

"I can't!" Bobbie almost wailed. "He said that if anyone found out that I'd brought drugs into the country I'd go to jail. He said he'd get his mates inside to skin me; and his mates outside to get my mum!"

He dissolved into tears, and Alex was in the bizarre situation of patting a Boris Johnson look-a-like on the arm. "Bobby...please..."

He looked up desperately. "I need protection," he said. "Please – please help me."

Alex, not sure how on earth she was going to persuade Gene Hunt to let this kid off drug smuggling charges _and _stump up protection, couldn't help but nod.

---

Alex hadn't expected Gene to be jumping for joy with the news, and it was (she thought bitterly) a credit to her profiling skills how well she had pegged his reaction to it.

"So let me get this straight," he ranted. "You got him to confess all. You even got a name from him. But you aren't going to tell anyone because _you promised_?!"

She followed him into the CID room and the team, recognising the argument as par for the course, barely looked at them. Ray didn't even wake up.

Alex tried to explain. "A lot better men than him have fallen into honey-traps," she said reasonably. "He didn't know about the drugs – he was just a victim. And he's agreed to give you names in exchange for protection."

He threw his office door open, waited for her to come inside, and then slammed it behind him.

"I'm sorry – the last time I looked you were a copper, not a social worker! This whole station has been slaving over this case– people want to see an arrest!"

"Then isn't it better they see the right person arrested?" she said hotly.

"No!" he snapped. "They want to see _everyone_ arrested. If we let him off this then all we get for our work is a bunch of bullshit names this kid has made up." He yanked his jacket off the back of his chair and shrugged it on. "Now I'm going down there to beat the information out of him –"

"Oh no you're not!" she shouted. "Because I have it right here!" She held out a folded piece of paper. "You get it when you agree to the terms."

Gene lunged for it but she jumped backwards, just out of reach. "I don't think-" she began, but Gene didn't give her time to finish. He opened the door and barked at Ray.

"In here! Now!"

Ray jerked awake and came inside, still bleary eyed. "Yes, Guv?"

He jerked his head at Alex, who fixed her most superior look on him. "Nick this one for withholding information – a couple of hours in the cells will give her chance to get her priorities straight and give me time to get rid of the massive headache known as _Bolly-itus_."

Ray - clearly unsure how serious the Guv was - inched towards her. "Get off," she snapped, slapping Ray's hand away. "It's not withholding information – it's preventing you coming down like a tonne of bricks on an _innocent kid_."

"Who smuggled a couple of thousand pounds worth of Coke across the channel!" Gene raged.

Alex could see that this Mexican standoff was going to go on for some time. The mature and reasonable thing to do would be to work on tracking down the person on the list she'd be given. A fresh collar might persuade Gene to go easy on the stupid but largely innocent boy.

Instead maturity went out of the window and she marched out of Gene's office and back into CID. "Come on people. It's six o' clock," she called. "Let's knock back some drinks!"

There was a general cheer and clatter to get coats, keys, and (in Alex and Shaz's case) handbags.

As the mass exodus continued she looked back at Gene, who stood in his door with a twisted expression, and called. "We'll continue this _tomorrow._"

**A/N**: In the end I've separated it into two parts so it's not too long. I'm normally confident writing characters but I just have a bad feeling about this fic for some reason – so if you think they are in character please let me know.

And if you don't know who Boris Johnson is (though I'm sure 99.99% do) um...google him. It'll be...an education.


	2. Chapter 2

**Title**: The Naked Truth (2 of 4)

**Author**: Emmylou/EmmyAngua

**Disclaimer**: Ashes to Ashes, Life on Mars, and the characters therein belong to the BBC and Kudos.

**Rating**: PG-15 (swearing, nudity)

**Summary**: A Mexican standoff about a case leads to Alex and Gene playing a game involving truth and stripping. The last one clothed gets the case resolution they want, but to get it they've got to answer some very personal questions...

----

As always, the mood as Luigi's was comfortable as people laid aside thoughts of work in favour of getting pissed. The only person to think of Bobby Hadleigh here, among the clinking glasses and smell of pasta sauce, was the only copper who didn't go off duty. Gene sat waiting for Bolly to peel herself away from an in-depth talk with Shaz and join him.

"So it's like truth or dare..." Shaz said.

Alex sloshed more white into both glasses and shook her head. "No – well yeah – kind of. Someone asks you a question, and you have to answer truthfully. If you won't or can't answer, you have to take a piece of clothing off. Last one wearing something wins..."

They giggled in an obnoxiously girly way. "Who thought that up?" asked Shaz wondrously.

Alex prodded her own chest proudly. "Me. Used to play it all the time back at Uni. I always won too!"

"'Cause you're truthful?" asked Chris. He'd just failed at persuading Ray to lend him a ciggie and dropped down into the seat next to Shaz.

Alex shook her head again and took another glug of wine. "Nope. Although I am – truthful, that is."

"But then," Chris had a knack for unthreading a conversation. "You might be lying now." Alex stared blankly (or rather, drunkly) back at him.

Ray joined them and she took this distraction as a chance to set the conversation back on its tracks. "I'm not lying, any way, the point is...this point is that I've got no shame."

Even Gene, who'd dismissed the conversation as complete and utter balls couldn't let that opportunity go. "Most sensible thing you've said all night Bolly. Now why don't you follow that up by sensibly buying me a drink."

Chris and Ray hooted with laughter, Shaz dissolved into giggles.

"With the game," Alex pressed, more loudly for Gene's benefit. "I'm not afraid of embarrassing myself."

"Let's play!" said Shaz loudly. She had been working her way through the considerable amount of wine Alex kept doling out to her.

"The chance to see you two with your tits out?" said Ray, "I'm in."

Alex leaned back in her seat, filled with the glorious brilliance of the idea. She was still sober enough to know that it would be a horrific memory tomorrow morning, but then so what? She never lost so it wouldn't be horrific for _her_.

"In front of everyone?" asked Chris, alarmed.

"Signor -" Luigi filled Gene's proffered glass and looked at him pleadingly. "Please – tell them – no naked games in here."

Gene clapped his friend on the shoulder and waded in before his team scarred the patrons of Luigi's (and Luigi) for life.

"Right you lot – Bolly here is going to bed before she encourages anyone to get naked, steal a traffic cone, or do any other idiot thing that she thought up in university."

"What?" she demanded. "You can't send me to bed! You're not the boss of me!"

"I'm sorry Chief Inspector – I must have missed that promotion you got, cause the last time I looked, you've still got DI written on your badge" he said, lifting her to her feet and steering her across the restaurant.

Alex snatched a bottle of vodka off a nearby table as she was manhandled past it. "Fine," she said, waving it at him. "But you're paying for this bottle!" She took a swig.

"Withholding information, public drunkenness, and theft – all in one day Bolls. Be glad you aren't adding public nudity to that list."

They staggered up the steps and into her flat. She wasn't hammered, so much as pissed off, and by the time they were at the door she was passing for sober (or so she apparently thought). She shrugged his hands away let herself in. The way the door was left thrown open meant he was expected to follow and soon he was sunk into her impossibly comfortable couch while she staggered around looking for glasses to drink from.

She moved around to the other side of the coffee table and dropped to her knees opposite him, where she poured them generous shots. "Cheers," he said.

"Tosser," she replied. "I haven't been sent to bed since I was twelve."

"I'll _put_ you to bed if you don't shut up," he snapped.

She tilted her head to one side, and for a moment he thought she was considering this offer. "Bobby Hadleigh," she said suddenly.

He paused "What about him? He's not getting off this charge."

"Oh yeah," she said as she scanned around to for good comeback, "..._says you_! Anyway – how about a bet?"

Her eyes twinkled up at him and he tried to pull himself together. Home. He needed to go home....

"What on? The size of your hangover?"

"Bobby. Hadleigh," she prodded the table with each word. "Good old Boris. If I win, he gets off with a caution and protection. If you win - "

"I get the list, Hadleigh gets banged up, and I'll have you handcuffed to my desk for a whole morning for withholding information."

She squinted at him, no doubt thoroughly offended, but then smiled. "Fine..."

"What are we betting on?"

She leaned forward with a wide grin. "Who wins my game."

Oh god, he thought. You've really done it now. No escape. Just you and her taking clothes off piece by piece by piece...

He picked up the Vodka and poured himself another. "We're going to need this," he said. "And let's add Gene's rule to your bloody game. Every time you lose, you take a drink."

"A drinking game," she purred. "That makes it all the better."

"What if you lie?" he asked suddenly.

"Silly me...and here was I thinking I was in the presence of a copper who is...you know..._trained_ to spot liars."

"Why should I play?"

She leaned forward, accidentally giving him a great view of her tits. "Because there's a whole bottle of Vodka. Because you might get a chance to finally understand your crazy DI a bit better. And because I'll be taking my clothes off.

She sipped her drink.

"I could work through a bottle downstairs," he grunted. "The day I or anyone else understands you is the day Chris joins Mensa. And-"

He paused, unable to think of a suitable reply to the last. She merely finished off her Vodka helping with a smug look.

"Gonna play then?"

He took his time lighting a cigarette. "Of course I am."

---

A/N: Next time we'll be getting into the questions (and nudity) of the game. Thanks for the great reviews last time and I'd love your opinions now.


	3. Chapter 3

**Title**: The Naked Truth (3 of 4)

**Author**: Emmylou/EmmyAngua

**Disclaimer**: Ashes to Ashes, Life on Mars, and the characters therein belong to the BBC and Kudos.

**Rating**: PG-15 (swearing, nudity)

**Summary**: A Mexican standoff about a case leads to Alex and Gene playing a game involving truth and stripping. The last one clothed gets the case resolution they want, but to get it they've got to answer some very personal questions...

**Author's Notes:** Short chapter today. Hopefully a fun one though.

* * *

"So where's this daughter you keep banging on about?" he cut in, going straight for the kill.

Alex paused. "A long way away."

"If that's the kind of bollocks answer you're planning to give you can just strip now."

Oh god, she thought, that was why playing this game wasn't such a good idea in this world. When she was 19 her only secrets were about what the most depraved thing she'd ever done in bed (it involved non police issue handcuffs, a dice, and a pillow) and which Wet Wet Wet singer she'd fuck (Marti). Now she had big secrets and she knew she'd have to risk lying or loose.

She had (she calculated), six items of clothing; her shirt, skirt, stockings, shoes, pants, and bra. He already had an advantage, his tie giving him seven.

There was nothing for it. She'd have to try and lie – even if it meant getting caught out and loosing an item. Her only option was to hit him with more awkward questions than he did her. Her inner psychologist smiled - no problem there.

"She's with her father and step-mother. They fought for custody...I'm not allowed to see her."

It wasn't a total lie. It had happened, back in 2008 and they'd lost. Without Evan on her side, who knew where Molly would be now.

She carefully looked at his face – it was stony. She needed to push it up a gear to convince him and so she spoke honestly, from the heart. "It seems so far away now...I thought life wouldn't get any worse for me than that. How wrong I was..."

She looked at the vodka, suddenly wanting another shot. She poured one; even knowing it was stupid to incapacitate herself so early in the game.

"Are you going to ask me a question then or not?" he asked sharply.

"What? Oh..." She stumbled over the words as she choked her drink down. She knew she had to strike hard early on, but she hadn't got around to thinking anything up. "Uh...one word answer. Who do you like best...me or Sam?"

He looked down at her again, with that stony face. Then he reached up and tugged at his tie. A moment later he tossed it onto the table.

Stunned at her strike on such a hastily thought up question, she bit back a smile. "I'll try not to be offended."

He finished gulping down the Vodka shot and fired back almost instantly. "Who would you rather shag? Me or Sam?"

Alex actually laughed at that one. "You," she raised her glass at him. "No question about that. But as my last husband tried to steal my daughter...perhaps I shouldn't trust my gut instinct anymore." She said that last leaning in at him and speaking conspiratorially.

Again he hid his expression from her. He looked as blank as in any poker game. She hoped, though, she'd shocked him just a little.

-

Some time later, it was still Gene – 0, Alex – 1. She tried to push him on the sexual angle. He wasn't afraid of talking about sex, but rarely went past blatant innuendo to her actual face. Hopefully she'd hit a nerve pushing him to go further...

"Last sexual fantasy?"

He smirked. "You won't beat me on that score, luv. It was you on the hood of the Quattro. Old standby, that one."

She bit back her peal of laughter. She needed to unsettle him to keep ahead. Instead, she raised an eyebrow coldly. "Really? How very professional of you."

-

"So what was your maiden name then Bolly?"

_Shiiiit_. There was no escape from that one. He'd know she was lying if she made something up – who had to think to remember their maiden name? And there was no way in the world she could tell him it was _Price_.

She slowly unbuttoned her blouse, vaguely hoping that choosing something revealing early on would distract him from his game. He looked surprised, and she wondered whether it was over her choice of clothing or him scoring on such an easy question.

She leaned forward across the coffee table. "Tell me about something embarrassingly soft-hearted you've done."

And the game continued...

---

A/N: Right, well I know it was short but this story was only ever meant to be split into two parts – but when I came to post on LJ it said it was too long. As a result splitting it in a sensible place makes this part shorter.

Hopefully you thought it was a fun chappie though (and in character, something - again – that is bothering me far too much in this story.) Please let me know!

Next time Alex get's grilled about her connection to Sam and all those other things that make her seem crazy – will she loose or lie? He's going to have to open up a bit...and the winner is announced!


End file.
